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Summary of Cross-Agency Evaluation of DoD, VA, and HHS Mental Health Public Awareness Campaigns

Core Content

This report presents the findings and recommendations from a cross-agency evaluation of four mental health public awareness campaigns: the Real Warriors Campaign (DoD), Make the Connection (VA), Veterans Crisis Line (VA), and National Recovery Month (HHS). The evaluation was conducted between June 2015 and June 2016 and aimed to assess the scope, content, and dissemination of these campaigns, as well as their alignment with best practices. The purpose of the evaluation was to support the Obama administration's Cross-Agency Priority Goal (CAP-G) of improving mental health outcomes for service members, veterans, and their families.

Main Objectives

• To evaluate the collective reach and impact of the campaigns.
• To identify areas of alignment and overlap among the campaigns.
• To assess the effectiveness of campaign content and messaging.
• To recommend improvements in coordination, content, and dissemination strategies.

Key Campaigns

1. Real Warriors Campaign (DoD): A multimedia campaign aimed at encouraging help-seeking behavior among service members, veterans, and military families dealing with mental health issues.
2. Make the Connection (VA): A campaign that provides personal testimonials and resources to help veterans improve their lives.
3. Veterans Crisis Line (VA): Offers confidential counseling via phone, chat, or text to veterans in crisis and their support networks.
4. National Recovery Month (HHS): An annual campaign promoting awareness and understanding of mental and substance use disorders, and celebrating recovery.

Key Findings

Scope and Content

• All campaigns share the goal of improving mental health knowledge and promoting positive perceptions of mental illness and treatment.
• The majority of campaign content (82%) aligns with shared goals.
• Campaigns often target overlapping audiences, including service members, veterans, and their families.
• Content for secondary audiences (e.g., family members, health professionals) was less developed compared to primary audience content.
• Recovery Month placed greater emphasis on substance use than the other campaigns.
• Campaigns could improve by clearly marking source information on materials to enhance credibility and transparency.

Dissemination and Reach

• Campaigns used a variety of channels, including websites, social media, radio, and television.
• In 2015, the campaigns collectively reached over 5.6 million people via Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
• VA's Make the Connection campaign had the highest reach on these platforms, accounting for over 90% of the total Facebook fans and YouTube views.
• Campaign websites hosted over 4 million sessions in 2015, but many visitors spent only a short time on the sites.
• Some campaigns had outdated content or broken links, which could affect user experience and campaign effectiveness.

Alignment with Best Practices

• Campaigns generally aligned with best practices in messaging and content.
• However, there were opportunities for improvement, such as providing clearer information on anonymity and confidentiality, ensuring content is current, and enhancing the richness of materials for primary audiences.

Recommendations

Messaging Coordination

1. Cross-reference other campaigns more when presenting resources in campaign materials.
2. Convene national and regional partners to define a strategic national direction for public mental health education.
3. Clearly define unique contributions and intentional overlaps in messages and target populations across the campaigns.
4. Monitor coordination of current and new campaign efforts to promote strategic coordination of messaging and dissemination.
5. Develop targeted performance measures that cut across campaigns.
6. Explore cross-campaign and cross-platform measures to fully capture exposure and synergy across campaigns.

Content Improvement

2. Determine whether source information should be clearly marked on more campaign materials.
3. Review content that does not align with desired outcomes and consider modification or deletion.
4. Ensure all content and links are current.
5. Specify the level of anonymity and/or confidentiality guaranteed by self-assessment and direct connections to mental health care.
6. Enhance materials targeting support networks and consider whether to focus on a smaller audience to develop more and richer content for service members and veterans.

Conclusion

The evaluation highlights the importance of coordination and alignment among the campaigns to maximize their impact and reach. While the campaigns have made progress in promoting mental health awareness, there are opportunities for improvement in content clarity, dissemination strategies, and performance measurement. The findings suggest that a more unified approach, supported by federal partners, could lead to more effective and efficient mental health public awareness efforts.